Syrian rescue forces ended their search for secret cells in Saydnaya prison

White Helmets rescue workers say they have ended their search for people possibly held in secret cells or basements at Syria’s notorious Saydnaya military prison without finding them. Who.

Specialist teams backed by K9 canine units and individuals familiar with the layout combed the prison and its grounds on Monday, as crowds gathered in hopes of finding the person. their missing bodies.

“The search did not uncover any unopened or hidden areas within the facility,” the White Helmets statement said.

This information came as rebel fighters said they had found nearly 40 bodies showing signs of torture in the morgue of a hospital in the capital Damascus.

Meanwhile, the leader of the Islamist militant group whose attacks led to the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad said Sunday that former senior officials oversaw the torture of political prisoners during the civil war. The country’s 13-year war will be held accountable.

Abu Mohammed al-Jolani said the names of the officials would be published and the repatriation of those who had fled to other countries would be carried out. Rewards will also be offered to anyone who provides information about their whereabouts, he added.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based monitoring group, says nearly 60,000 people have been tortured and killed in Assad regime prisons.

Human rights groups say more than 100,000 people have disappeared since Assad ordered a brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protests in 2011, sparking a civil war.

The Türkiye-based Association of Detained and Missing Persons in Sednaya Prison (ADMSP) said in a 2022 report that the prison “effectively became a death camp” after the start of the conflict. suddenly.

It is estimated that more than 30,000 detainees were executed or died due to torture, lack of medical care or starvation at the facility between 2011 and 2018.

It also cited released prisoners as saying that at least 500 other detainees were executed between 2018 and 2021.

ADMSP also describes how “salt chambers” were built to serve as crude morgues to store bodies before they were transported to Tishreen Military Hospital in Damascus for registration and burial in burial mounds. grave on military land. Families of detainees were never given their bodies.

Amnesty International used the phrase “murderer” to describe Saydnaya and alleged that the executions were authorized by Assad’s government and that such actions constituted war crimes. and crimes against humanity.

Assad’s government rejected Amnesty’s claims as “baseless” and “without truth”, insisting that all executions in Syria followed legal processes.